A proposal for a new process to resolve the Irish Ferries dispute has been thrown into confusion after the company said it had no knowledge of a plan to appoint interlocutors.
An Irish Ferries spokesman said this morning the company was not aware of an agreement reached last night at the National Implementation Body (NIB) for the unions and employers to each appoint two interlocutors.
"We have no knowledge of an initiative at this time. If there was one, we were not consulted about it - it would be an initiative taken outside of Irish Ferries," a company spokesman said.
"Agreement was reached last night to appoint interlocutors, though things seems to have changed given the company's reaction today. It remains to be seen what develops today," an Ictu spokesman said.
"The ball is in the company's court. It looks like this initiative could deliver because there will be no resolution without negotiations and talks."
The Irish Timestoday reports that Siptu vice-president Brendan Hayes and Dublin regional secretary Patricia King, have been appointed by the union side and that Brendan McGinty, director of industrial relations with Ibec, is to be one of the two employers' representatives.
Spokesman for Irish Ferries
NIB talks are taking place on the situation at An Post today, though it is understood the Irish Ferries dispute will again be mentioned. Ibec has said it will not be making comment until after these discussions.
The Irish Independenttoday reports that the four-person "talks group" will be announced later today and will be given a matter of days to come up with a formula to help resolve the deadlock.
The crisis deepened on Monday night when Irish Ferries said it would not follow a Labour Court recommendation for unions and management to observe a three-year agreement on seafarers' pay and conditions reached in June.
It also said the company should not proceed with its plan to lay off 543 seafarers and replace them with cheaper foreign labour - the issue at the heart of the dispute.
Irish Ferries argued that it had a legal responsibility to keep the company profitable and therefore had to reject the recommendation because it did not take account of its current economic position.
Rising fuel costs, a fall-off in passengers and the lower cost base of its competitors who use outsourced agency crew were cited as factors driving the need to cut costs.
Around 90 per cent of the seafarers have accepted the offer, though the union says many are having second thoughts. The company began outlining further details of its plan to workers yesterday and will continue the process today.
The company spokesman told ireland.comit was proceeding with its redundancy plan: "There is no alternative proposal from any quarter, so our plan remains the only show in town."
The dispute has scuppered talks on a new social partnership deal, with unions saying that the Irish Ferries plan would set an unacceptable precedent in the Irish labour market.